The Official Red Book: A Guide Book of Modern United States Dollar Coins

The Bowers Series is a popular Whitman Publishing library of numismatic books, each covering a different segment of the hobby. Volume #22 explores the full range of modern U.S. dollar coins: Eisenhower, Susan B. Anthony, Sacagawea, Native American, and Presidential. These coins, the successors to the silver Morgan and Peace dollars of yesteryear, have been minted from 1971 to the present day in different sizes, alloys, and themes. All of them are fun to collect, with historic designs to engage the beginner and some interesting challenges for the specialist.

“When I started writing this book, I thought it would be straightforward and simple,” says award-winning author Q. David Bowers, the most prolific numismatic writer in American history. “Instead I found these coinage series to be as complex and nuanced as any of the classics—a delight for collectors!” Research assistance from longtime coin dealers and collectors, U.S. Mint officials, and hobby organizations such as the Ike Group have rounded out Bowers’s own active study of these coins. His detailed coverage includes history, mintages, grading standards, die varieties, keys to assembling a high-quality collection, market analysis, and more.

Hundreds of full-color images illustrate the coins themselves, and historical photographs provide rare behind-the-scenes insight into their creation.

A Guide Book of Modern United States Dollar Coins is destined to be the standard reference for hobby newcomers and experienced collectors alike.
Binding: Paperback
Edition: 2nd
Publication Date: July 26, 2016
Pages: 320

CoinWeek Says:


If you’re looking for a scholarly 800-page tome with page upon page of tedious breakdown on obscure, scarcely collected dollar varieties or cross-sectioned analysis of the uneventful legislative hearings that birthed each of the modern dollar coin series, then this probably isn’t your book.

If, however, you’re looking for a substantial 350-page volume brimming with numismatic knowledge, little-known academic trivia on the various dollar coins, and fresh perspectives on this fascinating coinage–along with hundreds of color photos–then you’ll likely devour this book on the first read and refer back to it many times over in the future.

Personally, I find Modern Dollars a feast for the eyes. The plate coins are beautiful (I expect nothing less from a Whitman book), and the numerous yesteryear-hued images of striking ceremonies and rarely seen galvanos, models and sketch images are a joy to see. A vintage ephemera collector such as myself will get a kick out of multiple photographs of old dollar coin promotional materials. These include a 1971 Eisenhower 40 percent silver dollar order form and a circa 1979 Susan B. Anthony dollar advertisement exuberantly filled with words such as “quick” and “easy”.

Modern Dollars is the reference guide I wish I had when I first dove into collecting Ikes and Susan B. Anthony dollars in the early 1990s, and it’s the book that reignites my passion for these gracefully aging coins today. There’s also something palpably democratic about this book. It’s easily approachable for the beginner, remarkably educational for the advanced collector and deeply satisfying for the masses in between. It’s exactly what I expect any good installment in the Whitman Official “Guide Book” series to be. Modern Dollars doesn’t disappoint, and I’ll bet my bottom dollar coin that any other Eisenhower, SBA or golden dollar enthusiast will agree.

Highly recommended.